AT&T Buys Alltel Wireless For $780m To Acquire 585k Subscribers And More

We should know by now Consumer Reports has rated AT&T the worst wireless carrier in the U.S. for several years now and it looks as though 585,000 Alltel subscribers are going to experience the service first hand now that AT&T has purchased Alltel’s retail operations for $780 million.

The acquisition won’t only add 585,000 subscribers to the AT&T service, but the company will also be acquiring spectrum in the 700 MHz, 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands, licenses and new retail locations with the deal announced today.

Back in 2008, Verizon merged with Alltel Wireless, although some assets from the merger was ordered to divest some of it by the U.S. government for fear the company would become too dominant with all of its newly acquired assets. The deal AT&T made today purchased the assets Verizon wasn’t able to pick up during its own merger with Alltel Wireless.

One issue we can see coming from this acquisition is the process Alltel Wireless customers will need to go through in order to “upgrade” their devices seeing how Alltel’s network is CDMA-based and these customers would need to use GSM, HSPA and LTE-enabled devices in order to make the jump to AT&T.